Artist inspired by S. Texas landscape

Updated 8:52 pm, Sunday, February 17, 2013

San Antonio artist James Joffe uses a variety of methods and tools to create his abstact paintings, including pours, brush and squeegee.

San Antonio artist James Joffe uses a variety of methods and tools to create his abstact paintings, including pours, brush and squeegee.

Photo: Courtesy Of The Artist

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"Developing Telekinesis to Overcome Gravity" is one of the oils in an exhibition by San Antonio artist James Joffe at the Blume Library at St. Mary's University.

"Developing Telekinesis to Overcome Gravity" is one of the oils in an exhibition by San Antonio artist James Joffe at the Blume Library at St. Mary's University.

Photo: Courtesy Of The Artist

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James Joffe's work, such as "Found her in a dream looking for me," is evocative of the world the San Antonio artist senses around him. He is showing 34 recent works at St. Mary's University, where he teaches art. less

James Joffe's work, such as "Found her in a dream looking for me," is evocative of the world the San Antonio artist senses around him. He is showing 34 recent works at St. Mary's University, where he teaches ... more

“I grew up in South Texas, and we'd drive all over the state,” he recalls. “I remember looking out the window of the car at these amazing land formations going by. I didn't necessarily want to paint that representationally, but it's been an inspiration for my work.”

Joffe is showing 34 recent oils, color studies and digital drawings at the Blume Library gallery at St. Mary's University, where he teaches art. The show runs through Feb. 28.

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Two years ago, he was promoted to a full-time position at St. Mary's, and the Blume exhibition is the result of making up for lost time and a rededication to the studio.

“Now,” he says, “I'm a painter who teaches. It feels so good to get back to painting.”

Joffe uses a combination of brush and pour techniques — as well as squeegees — to make his expressive, emotionally charged works. He creates interesting shapes, swirls and squiggles with glazes and solvents reacting to oil paint.

“I call it spontaneous happenstance,” says the genial 39-year-old. “My approach is purely experimental — 'Let's see what this does.'”

He's inspired not just by terrain, but by seasonal changes, cloud formations, bodies of water and architectural elements both urban and rural. Music (“I don't do drugs, I do music”) and pop culture — cartoon colors pop up here and there — are important to him. But he doesn't reflect these influences directly or narratively.

“Rather,” he says, “they are used more for their elemental, textural, rhythmic or color references that may be evoked, but not represented.”

Which is a pretty good definition of what abstract painting is.

Joffe's titles, such as “Found Her in a Dream Looking for Me” and “Developing Telekinesis to Overcome Gravity” (which is a rearrangement of a line from a Smiths' song), are meant to “encourage the viewer to be playful in their interpretation of the work.”

“As a nonrepresentational artist, James' work is evocative of the world he senses around him,” says Brian St. John, art department chairman at St. Mary's University and a former San Antonio Art League artist of the year. “James' sensitive use of color is beautifully matched with his overall balanced sense of design. Through the layering of shapes, colors and values he creates complex and engaging spatial affects. As in all good paintings, James exhibits a virtuosity of what paint can be.”